Hands Down the Summer's Best Film

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2005)

Michael Bay hit the nail on the head with this amazing, futuristic action film. The movie gallops through its two-hour running time, and leaves you wanting more (but in a good way). Alex Kurtzman's screenplay is well-written and fully illuminates Caspian Tredwell-Owen's story. That said, this movie is set 14 years in the future and thus asks you to make allowances for some of the more creative sections of the action scenes (SPOILER: during the chase on the LA Freeway there are not only cars, helicopters, and armored trucks chasing Ewan and Scarlett, but also the equivalent of flying jet-skies). Ewan slips into the character of Lincoln Six Echo with ease and makes his natural curiosity endearing and meaningful in a world of compliance and calm. Scarlett Johansson's Jordan Two Delta runs the gamut from childlike to wise to hardened. Their friendship inside the evil Merrick Institute is closely monitored by Sean Bean's Merrick. Bean's performance is truly inspired not only because Merrick is truly the most despicable of the "bad-guys" in Bean's considerable portfolio, but also because he is able to capture two sides of a man who believes he is God. SPOILER: One of the most chilling scenes in the film is an exchange between Albert Laurent, played brilliantly by Djimon Hounsou, and Merrick in which Merrick asks Laurent who in the world (other then himself) can say that in two years they will have a cure for children's leukemia? Speaking of Djimon Hounsou, what a phenomenal actor! He got to play one of those rare characters that changed sides in the end of the film, and it was brilliant, not just a plot device.
The most amazing thing about this movie however is not just the beautiful camera work and the tight story moved by great actors, it was the discussion that happened after the credits rolled. This movie has been compared to The Matrix because of the alternate reality portions, but I think that it is more comparable to Gattaca because the story deals with survival and the need to rise above what others perceive you to be (SPOILER: the scene where Steve Buscemi tells Jordan and Lincoln that they are not human, or at least not human like him). This movie is hands down the summer's best film because it challenges you to think about the realities of life and death and materialism and ask yourself the big question, would you if you could? The basic principle of the film is this line (repeated over and over again) "humans will do anything to survive", this movie not only survives, it flourishes.